Improvement in revolving fire-arms



W. H. ELLIOT. Revolving Fi re-Arm.

N PETERS. PHOTO-LITNOGRAPMEH. WASHINGTON D C.

Patented Oct. 11,1875.

WILLIAM H. ELLIOT, or NEW YORK, n.

IMPROVEMENT IN REVOLVING FIRE-ARMS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1168562. dated October11, 1875; application filed September 9, 1875.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, WM. H. ELLIOT, of thecity, county, and State of New York, have invented a Revolving Fire-Arm,of which the any kind; and its principal object is to enable me to makea very compact and convenient revolving pocket-pistol of a large bore.The nature of my invention consists in a novel arrangement,construction, and operation of the revolving devices of the lockingboltand of the main spring, all of which is fully set forth in the followingspecification and claims.

Figure l is an elevation of my improved arm, showing portions of theframe removed, so as to expose the limb-work. Fig. 2 is an elevation ofthe rear end of the cylinder, and also a section of the locking bolt.Fig. 3 is a plan of the locking-bolt. Fig. 4: is an end elevation of theframe, with the barrel and cylinder removed. Fig. 5 is a verticalsection of the frame at dotted line 00, looking toward the barrel. Fig.6 is an elevation of the locking-bolt.

a is the frame; b, the barrel; 0, the cylinder; d, the hammer; e, therevolving pawl and its pivot; g, the locking-bolt and its pivot; h,trigger on the same pivot with the lockingbolt; 1', the beveled end ofthe lockingbolt; 1', the extended arms of the lockingbolt, which embracethe chambers of the cylinder; k, mainspring; k, fixed seat of the sameon the frame; Io", fixed bearing of the.

mainspring in the hammer; m, cut on the back of the breech-plate for therevolving pawl; n, breech-plate; a, groove in the face of the same; 0,revolving pins or ratchet; r, dowel-pins, which form a slip-jointbetween the barrel and frame at line 8; a, base-pin '0, key which holdsthe slipjoint together; 00, line of section.

It has long been a desideratum by inventors to provide means ofrevolving the cylinder of a fire-arm by sure and practical means withoutincreasing its diameter for the purpose of making room for the revolvingdevices, all of which I have accomplished by the following means: I putin or form upon, the rear endof the cylinder the pins or projections 0.These project about threethirty-seconds of an inchbeyond the heads ofthe cartridges into the breech-plate. To provide room for these pins Iform a groove in the breech-plate of just sufficient depth to receivethem. These pins are put into the solid metal of the cylinder betweenthe chambers and outside side of the point, where the heads of thecartridges come nearest together, as shown in Fig. 2. Thus I have aratchet so far from the center of the cylinder that it requires thewhole backward sweep of the hammer to effect the revolution of thecylinder from one chamber to another, and it is therefore proportionablystrong to overcome friction.

To facilitate the operation of the revolving pawl upon the ratchet-pins,I make a vertical out, m,-in the back of the breech-plate aboutone-fourth of an inch wide and three-fourths long, as shown in Figs. 1and 5. The bottom of this out is parallel with the face of thebreech-plate, which is so thin at this point that the ratchet-pinsproject through it, and are operated upon by the revolving pawl behindit, so that notwithstanding the pawl operates upon the ratchet directlyover the cartridges it cannot come in contact with them. The groove nbeing only one-sixteenth of an inch in width the heads ofpistol-cartridges are not forced into it, nor even strained, by theforce of the gas. The end of the revolving pawl is broad enough to fillthe cut m, and makes a direct vertical movement, while each ratchet-pin,as it comes around, slides back and forth across the end of the pawl.

By this arrangement of the revolving devices I can use a cylinder offour large chambers so close together that the heads of the cartridgeswill touch the base-pin, and the partitions between the chambers will beas thin as they can safely be. Such a cylinder should be fluted itsentire length, as seen in Fig. 2, so that when turned to and locked in amid dle position, as it should be when prepared for the pocket, it willoccupy the least possible amount of space. A cylinder of this kind, whenlocked in position for firing, has one chamber above and one below; andto avoid making a cut into the metal of the cylinder over .thechambersfor the point of the locking-bolt, I employ a locking-bolt with twopoints sufficiently extended to embrace one of the chambers, as shown ati in Figs. 1 and 4. These points may be formed so as to take a morepositive hold on the cylinder by fitting them to shallowcuts at eachside of the chambers. When the cylinder is in the central position theyrest upon two chambers at once, as shown in Fig. 2, and they hold itstationary.

My improved locking-bolt is operated in the usual way by a cam on theside of the hammer.

In my improved arm I employ a mainspring of peculiar construction, itbeing in the form of the letter S, and fastened at one end to the 'frameby a screw, and at the other end having a fixed bearing in the hammer.This spring gives off its force in two directions.

One direction is parallel with a line drawn from the seat of the springon the frame to its bearing in the hammer, and it is caused by atendency of the spring to straighten out between its two points ofattachment. This I call the parallel force. The other direction islateral, and almost at right angles to the first, and is the result ofthe arrangement of the spring upon its seat, which gives it a tendencyto sweep backward. This I call the lateral force. These two forcesproduce a resultant which has all the advantages that can be obtained bythe use of a stirrup with ordinary springs-viz, freedom from frictionwith a light bearing upon the full-cock notch and a heavy bearing uponthe safety-notch. The parallel force .alone would hold the hammer up atfull cook, but would throw it down with some force from thesafety-notch, while the lateral force would act with great power on thefull-cock notch, but would bear lightly upon the safety-notch.- By mypeculiar construction and application of the mainspring I combine theseforces so as to produce the desired result. By the parallel force thefree end of the spring is firmly held in its bearing in whateverposition the hammer may be. No

particular proportion between the upperand 1. In combination with theratchet-pins 0,

the groove n, when arranged in the breechplate directly behind thechambers of the cylinder, substantially as and for the purposespecified. v

2. The construction and operation of the ratchet-pins, breech-plate, andrevolving pawl, whereby the revolving pawl operates upon the ratchetdirectly in the rear of the chambers, and behind the breech-plate,without coming in contact with the cartridges, substantially asspecified.

3. The two extended points of the lockingbolt, whereby that deviceembraces each one of the chambers as they come around to lock thecylinder, as herein set forth.

4. The S-shaped mainspring k, when immovably fixed upon its seat 10, andprovided with a fixed partially-rotating bearing in the hammer, wherebyit is made to give off a combined parallel and lateral force,substantially in the manner and for the purpose specified.

WM. H. ELLIOT.

Witnesses:

D. LEWIS, RICHARD W. J ONES.

